Pressure Injuries

Pressure injuries are an international patient safety risk and may cause
the patient severe pain (some have likened it to sitting on a hot stove plate),
increase the time they need to be in hospital and may cause them to have
increased care needs when they return home.
In the year 2015 – 2016, 4,313 patients developed pressure injuries in
public hospitals.

At Epworth, we take pressure injuries, which develop in hospital,
seriously and investigate each one to identify any learnings or opportunities
for improvement that can enhance the care we provide. These learnings are then shared across the
organisation through our Group Pressure Injury Committee. This Committee’s role
is to ensure that the care we provide is evidence based, best practice and
consistent.

At Epworth, we strive to help keep you safe from pressure injuries. We
achieve this through a number of initiatives, including:

Risk Reduction conversations. Your nurse will talk to you about your risk of developing a pressure injury and discuss strategies to prevent you from developing one such as encouraging movement, use of pressure relieving devices and the importance of adequate nutrition

Hourly rounding. In order to keep you safe, when your nurse rounds on you, they will encourage you to change positions

Preventative strategies. Your care team will discuss, and plan with you which strategies will may be helpful for you in reducing your risk of developing a pressure injury whilst in hospital and will refer you to allied health staff where appropriate​.

What does this mean?

This means that since June 2014, the percentage of patients who have
developed pressure injuries during their admission has been trending down. We participate in external benchmarking with
the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) every 6 months. Since 2014, Epworth’s rate of pressure
injuries was better than the average rate reported to ACHS in 6 of the 8
reporting periods.

Between Jan and June 2018, Epworth has continued to see improvements and
for every 1000 admissions, 1 – 2 patients sustained a pressure injury during
their stay.

Pressure Injury Bundles. In 2017,
Epworth HealthCare introduced the pressure injury bundles to the ICU. This
project’s aim was to increase staff awareness and product accessibility to
ensure prompt and appropriate management of our patients who were at risk of
developing or had developed a pressure injury.

Back to Basics Project. In 2018,
Epworth introduced the Back to Basics Project – an intensive awareness and
education campaign focusing on the SSKIN slogan as well as implementing the
Pressure Injury Bundles throughout the organization. Overall, this project
aimed to improve staff knowledge regarding risk assessment and management of
patients at risk of or for any that had developed a pressure injury.